[1.0.12.58] Beowulf's Challenge Not Working [resolved - not a bug]

[Frolk]

I'm playing a game with Gods & Heroes enabled and am currently waging a pre-emptive war against Mongolia. I was lucky enough to snag Beowulf, and the war seemed to be going fairly well with Beowulf doing most of the heavy lifting. All until Turn 37 when his "challenge" ability is suddenly disabled, right as Mongolia builds a horseman to defend their capital. I've played around with this to try to narrow things down, but I'm kind of stumped as to what's causing the bug. All I know is that it seems to be happening pretty consistently.

- "saving" a charge does nothing. At turn 35, whether I use the ability on the archer or goad it out and destroy it in a more conventional manner, the bug still appears at turn 37.
- it has nothing to do with the horseman being in the city. I was able to lure the horseman outside the city to attack my warrior and I still wasn't able to use the ability on it.
- I have no third party mods, only official DLC and patches.
- Zombie and monopoly mode are enabled, though I don't imagine that has anything to do with this.

Attached is my save-game at Turn 35, two turns before the bug manifests itself. I do think I can still salvage this war despite the bug, but it's going to be a bit slower going than I had planned.

 

[MangoCheeseCakey]

Haven't looked at the save yet, but was your Beowulf summoned in the ancient era? In which case it would have 34 base combat. A horseman has 36 base combat, making it stronger than ancient Beowulf. As the ability must be targeted on a weaker enemy unit, I think it's working as intended and not a bug at all. It should still work on units like warriors and archers that have lower combat strength.
If you summon Beowulf in later eras it should be stronger, but I don't think there's a way to increase his strength now. Given you're fighting Mongolian cavalry, try rushing for spearmen/pikemen or summon another hero? Or gather up faith to summon Beowulf again after he dies.

 

[Frolk]

Hey MangoCheeseCakey, that's it exactly. Thank you! I completely forgot that Beowulf can only target units with a smaller base strength; I guess it's not a scenario I've encountered often.

I was able to conquer the capital in a more conventional "besiege, whittle it down with archers, pillage farms as needed, and mass attack when its health is low enough" strategy by turn 39, two turns after Beowulf became obsolete.